The bad:
..but I it looks pretty odd to have my own group facing backwards when traveling. I'd be fine with not having them visible at all, or perhaps making them feel a bit more like part of the world somehow.

I, for one, was positively surprised by this approach. These 2D figures are clearly a symbolic representation of the group, so they get a "free pass" in that part of my brain which evaluates how "real" everything looks (while still delivering useful information). In most games attempts to draw "real" 3D characters here just breaks immersion for me.

Agreed, but one wonders what they're going to do about summoned/recruited creatures in your party? Will they do sprites for all them or not?

Agreed, but one wonders what they're going to do about summoned/recruited creatures in your party? Will they do sprites for all them or not?

Those don't look like sprites to me, or 2D.

I suppose it could be 2D... Anything 3D can be rendered into 2D; but it would probably take up more [data] space, and the animated actions would be far less smooth, and more limited. Leaving it [displaying it] as 3D would better [and easier] allow dynamic reaction to in-game events if they chose to have that.

**Without a very specific —if not specialized reason, it is better all around to use 3D; as detail is not longer much of an issue, and the benefits typically outweigh the hassle.

If by "Bard's Tale-sy" you mean fighting 99 Berserkers, 99 Berserkers, 99 Berserkers, and 1 Red Dragon in a rapid phase-based way, then that was never going to happen. Would I have loved it to happen? Sure. But the day they showed the chessboard arena was the day that particular dream ended. And frankly, it's not like that was a bad thing. I'd be hard put to design a game today that allows the ridiculous number of enemies Bard's Tale threw at the party. It would have to be closer to an RTS with a squad facing a zerg rush to approximate the sheer speed and lunacy of such a battle.

If by "Bard's Tale-sy" you mean fighting 99 Berserkers, 99 Berserkers, 99 Berserkers, and 1 Red Dragon in a rapid phase-based way, then that was never going to happen. Would I have loved it to happen? Sure. But the day they showed the chessboard arena was the day that particular dream ended. And frankly, it's not like that was a bad thing. I'd be hard put to design a game today that allows the ridiculous number of enemies Bard's Tale threw at the party. It would have to be closer to an RTS with a squad facing a zerg rush to approximate the sheer speed and lunacy of such a battle.

If by "Bard's Tale-sy" you mean fighting 99 Berserkers, 99 Berserkers, 99 Berserkers, and 1 Red Dragon in a rapid phase-based way, then that was never going to happen. Would I have loved it to happen? Sure. But the day they showed the chessboard arena was the day that particular dream ended. And frankly, it's not like that was a bad thing. I'd be hard put to design a game today that allows the ridiculous number of enemies Bard's Tale threw at the party. It would have to be closer to an RTS with a squad facing a zerg rush to approximate the sheer speed and lunacy of such a battle.

This seems out of context, or I've missed something...

But upon reading it, I immediately thought of the rebooted King's Bounty series.

This is a game that does just that —[99 Berserkers, 99 Berserkers, 99 Berserkers, and 1 Red Dragon]— It's typical to have fights with dozens, to hundreds, to even a thousand or more enemies in a particular group.

While it was never my hope for BT4 to clone King's Bounty, it did occur to me early on that the King's Bounty combat mechanics could rather easily be adapted to the BT series when one is willing to produce a spin-off-ish product, in the way they did with Wasteland 2. One can only hope that InXile can match for par with Katauri Interactive's grasp on turn based gameplay. Lots & lots to learn from them; and so many systems in play, it's superb.

Also the story events can modify the game UI; milestones can change the menus, even changes to the start-up screen can occur as per the most recent saved game's progress.

(Modified imagery...) New character art appears on the title screen —after you've discovered them in the game. Acquired companions change the inventory UI to add equipment slots for the [usually magical bonus giving] items that they can equip.